Franchot Says Baltimore County Schools' Heat Closing 'Embarassing'

Baltimore County schools are making use of their new heat closing policy, but state Comptroller Peter Franchot, long a crusader for air conditioning in Baltimore city and county schools, says it's "embarrassing" it came to this point.

"All of those could have been avoided five years ago with a minimal amount of money on box air conditioning units," he told WBAL talk host C4 in an interview. "For whatever reason, Baltimore County has dragged its feet."

With temperatures well into the 90s and heat indices flirting with triple digits in the Baltimore area, 37 Baltimore County schools still without central air are closed, but the 40 city schools in the same situation remain open.

In May, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, at risk of losing state capital funding for schools, announced plans to fund central air in the county schools still without it by August 2018. However, Franchot charges the county is behind schedule in its implementation of that plan.

"I happen to think it's a violation of civil rights to expect kids to go to school with these classroom conditions and expecting them to do well on standardized testing," Franchot said. "I don't give it any credibility whatsoever. It's not worth the paper that press release is printed on."

Franchot said many of the affected schools in both the county and the city are in economically-distressed neighborhoods home to working-class family, and brushed away claims this is about setting up for an eventual gubernatorial primary bout with the fellow Democrat Kamenetz.

"I'm not running for governor. I'm not running for higher office," Franchot said. "There is nothing political at all."